


To the Waters and the Wild

by ouroboros



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Nymphs & Dryads, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating will go up, summertime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 02:44:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1763267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ouroboros/pseuds/ouroboros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The hands had been warm. When Rei thought back about it, that’s what he remembered clearest, which was strange, since they had also been, you know, webbed.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When Rei is a child, he is saved from drowning by something he can't explain. Ten years later he decides to go back to the lake where it happened.</p><p>Or: an AU where Nagisa is a water sprite</p><p>(the chances of me ever actually finishing this are slim, but i am leaving it up just in case, sry)</p>
            </blockquote>





	To the Waters and the Wild

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [Autoeuphoric's lovely headcanon](http://autoeuphoric.tumblr.com/post/88098047599/faerie-au-where-rei-falls-into-a-lake-as-a-child).
> 
> Where the wave of moonlight glosses  
> The dim gray sands with light,  
> Far off by furthest Rosses  
> We foot it all the night,  
> Weaving olden dances  
> Mingling hands and mingling glances  
> Till the moon has taken flight;  
> To and fro we leap  
> And chase the frothy bubbles,  
> While the world is full of troubles  
> And anxious in its sleep.  
> Come away, O human child!  
> To the waters and the wild  
> With a faery, hand in hand,  
> For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.  
> -William Butler Yeats

It had been ten years since it happened. Ten years of hearing his parents tell the story over and over. This time, recounting it to some people he barely knew at one of his parents’ garden parties, was not much different.

“We were terrified, of course!” his mother was an animated storyteller, her emotions visible in her trembling face and her constantly moving hands, “He was underwater for, what, five minutes?”

His father interrupted here, laughing (the amount of time got longer every time the story was told), “It was closer to two, if that, but yes-”

“Well it _felt_ like an eternity! And he was only seven years old! Tripping off the edge of the boat like that! And he couldn’t swim, poor thing. Anyway,” she shook her head, fingers pressed to her temples, ”I was about to jump out of the boat when we saw him on the shore behind us.”

She paused here for dramatic effect, scanning her small audience. Rei avoided her eye contact, worrying awkwardly at a hangnail instead.

“He must have washed up, because he was unconscious. I almost fainted,” an indulgent look from his father always accompanied this part, “well, I felt like I could have!”

“We drove the boat to shore,” his father took over from here,“ and there he was. Looking tiny and soaked and still.”

His mother put her hand to her chest and another on Rei’s shoulder. He was looking at his feet, trying his hardest not to pay attention. His lack of swimming ability wasn’t exactly something he was proud of, but it was more than that that bothered him about this story. No matter how many times he heard his parents’ version, it just didn’t line up with what he’d seen, what he’d felt.

…..

The hands had been warm. When Rei thought back about it, that’s what he remembered clearest, which was strange, since they had also been, you know, _webbed_. But the water had been freezing. He could still feel, when he tried to call it back, the terror of how it made his muscles tight and unmovable and turned his lungs to tiny useless paper bags. So when those hands reached out to him in the darkness, he felt the heat radiating off of them through the water before they even got to him. And when they did, when the webbed fingers closed tight around his arms, he opened his eyes (which he had never done underwater before), shocked.

And then he saw him. It was a him, though he wasn’t sure how he knew that. It wasn’t so much a face he could remember, but individual features jumbled dreamily together. He remembered a glint of teeth, a sort of blonde backlit halo of hair that fanned out in the water, and eyes that were bright and warm and pink.

Rei recalled the slow, calm warmth of the boy wrapping around him, pulling him back up toward the surface, and then he had woken up on the sand, breathing regularly like he had just woken up from a nap, those eyes and hands already burning themselves into his mind.

….

“Isn’t that right, Rei?”

Coming back to reality, he looked around. They were all looking expectantly at him, drinks held slack in their hands, their eyes wide.

“Um,” he cleared his throat, “What?”

“The eyes you said you saw, Rei. You were so adorable. So insistent! You didn’t stop talking about the boy you thought saved you. What was it you called him?”

Rei shrugged, scratching his cheek uncomfortably. Shit. She was going to make him say it. And everyone was going to laugh.

“Come on, Rei, be a good sport- what was it?”

Rei sighed. “The pink eyed lake boy.”

He fought back a blush as the swell of laughter and exclamations about his seven year old adorability rolled through the small crowd.

“Just swallowed a bit too much lake water, I guess,” he said, shrugging as good naturedly as he could. That’d appease his parents enough-now it would not seem rude for him to leave.

It must have worked, because he didn’t hear anyone calling after him as he walked away, just his mother continuing, “We haven’t been back to that house since, of course…”

….

That night Rei dreamed about him. That wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary, since he dreamed about that day fairly often and thought about it even more. Usually, though, the dream would cut off right before they broke the surface, right where his memory stopped.

He woke up calmly- for being a dream about nearly drowning, he never felt particularly afraid.

Sitting up, he brought his hands to touch his bare chest, his shoulders, his sides. He could almost still feel the warmth from the boy’s body on his own. He pulled down the light sheet covering him and got out of bed, putting on the glasses he’d left neatly on his nightstand and walking softly to the open bay window.

He leaned out of it, resting his elbows on the sill and looking out at the cool grey light of dawn that was slowly lighting up their estate. After a moment, he closed his eyes again to call back what he’d just dreamed. The thump of his heartbeat grew louder as he pictured it. The dream hadn’t ended where it normally did, with the firm arm around his waist and the last look at the kicking of webbed feet propelling them swiftly upward toward the light.

This time, they broke the surface. He had breathed, and it had been a glorious gulp of air that left his head reeling. The boy had carried Rei onto the sand, and smiled at him as he set him down. It had been so vivid- the curve of the boy’s jaw as water dripped down it, the small slits below his ears (gills? Had he had gills?) and the nervous, bright light in his pink eyes. Goosebumps pricked their way up Rei’s arms as he called back the last flash of memory he had before his seven year old self had lost consciousness, before his seventeen year old self had just woken up.

Before the boy had disappeared, he had leaned down and kissed him, he remembered now, on the mouth. It had been warm.

Rei opened his eyes again and breathed, a shuddering, pulse rushed breath. He turned, pulling on a shirt, and left the room.

When he walked outside onto the veranda, his mother looked surprised to see him awake so early, but she put down her teacup and rose to hug him. When she pulled away, Rei spoke.

“Mother, I’ve been thinking. Do you think we could go back?”

“Back? Back to where, Rei?”

He held her gaze and spoke as clearly as he could, before he could lose his nerve, “Back to where it happened. To the lakehouse.”

Her surprise at his early rising was nothing compared to this, but she smiled at him nonetheless.

“Well, it’s not like it has gotten much use recently, has it?” she said eventually, the corners of her eyes soft with concern, “It wouldn’t upset you? To go back?”

Rei shook his head, “I think I’m ready. Also, you always talk about how much you like that house, and we never use it.”

She looked thoughtful.

“I do love it, and I don’t think your father will need much convincing. It will make him feel better about having paid for a caretaker to stop by and keep it up over the years, at least,” she said, and Rei could see her already getting excited, “A vacation there would be wonderful! Oh, Rei, if you’re sure?”

She clutched his arm, waiting for confirmation. He nodded, and she clasped her hands together under her chin.

“I’ll go wake him and ask!”

He watched her walk quickly inside and up the stairs to his parents’ rooms, the hem of her dressing gown fanning out behind her. He poured himself a cup of tea from the set on the table and sat down in one of the rocking chairs facing out toward the gardens. His heartbeat was starting to slow, finally, now that he had a concrete plan to work with. He was going to go back.

Rei Ryugazaki was a logical person. He’d heard plenty of stories of fantastical things, but he had never been able to believe in them. Still, though, he trusted his own mind above most everything, and he knew what he’d seen. The boy had been _real_ , and Rei wasn’t sure how he could possibly have been human. Holding the teacup loose in one hand, he absently ran his fingers across his lips. He had waited long enough. It was time to test his theory.


End file.
